ASB revolutionized as senior Lindsay Fasser takes charge

Michael Cochran, Staff Reporter
Originally published October 7, 2014

In some high schools, life can be a tough place. Whether you’re being bullied, fighting with your best friend or just the stress of talking in front of people, the social aspect of high school can be hard to handle at times.

Most schools have a hasty team of students that control some form of student government. These usually have a small audience of about 100 extremely spirited students. These 100 students are the single thing that barely keeps that government from collapsing. Until this year, we have been one of those schools. ASB President Lindsay Fasser has made it her ambition to change that.

Fasser doesn’t just lead the student community, she embodies the spirit of what it means to be a Beaver. Everything about Fasser screams school spirit. She has taken that spirit and used it to revolutionize ASB and the dynamics of student government.

Fasser went into this school year aiming to turn ASB into a new, organized group that accomplished goals while still having fun. She started this August with team bonding. She worked hard to get the ASB team together multiple times during the summer to establish a strong bond.

They went out to breakfasts and even had a team sleepover. During that sleepover, they spent almost 24 hours together. In the span of that time the team created a bond that is rarely seen in high school. “We all have a really good time together,” Fasser said.

The ASB team put in a lot of hard work before school started. “We were here the entire week. From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Fasser said. They were planning, decorating and getting ready for an exciting school year.

Since Sept. 4, ASB has been taking a new approach to how they operate. They are excited, full of energy and ready for anything.

This difference started with a change of dynamic in the day-to-day process of ASB. Fasser set up a board with three sections. “To-do,” “doing,” and “done.” With certain tasks in those three sections, members of ASB will then sign on to do different jobs. This ensures that everything gets done without too much authority. “I don’t have to be a dictator,” Fasser said.

Fasser also mentioned the difference in the group members. For her, it’s all about teamwork. “Everyone likes each other,” Fasser said. She mentioned that last year’s group was a bit cliquey and it was dictated by seniors only. “It’s less about me and more about the team,” Fasser said.

Another goal of Fasser’s is broadening ASB’s audience. “We’re trying to expand beyond the student who is usually catered to,” Fasser said. They’re doing this by trying to broaden spirit days and school events.

One aspect of this was seen in senior Hawk Ticehurst’s re-vamped homecoming videos. Being ASB’s Public Relations Director, Ticehurst used his video production skills to focus on the positives of the dance. What you can do. What you can wear. They made sure to point out that any amount of dressing up is spirited. ASB wants people to know they have a choice between dressing in a simple manner or going all out for spirit days.

Providing a karaoke machine at homecoming furthered their plan to broaden their audience. “People want to have fun on a Saturday night, but not everyone wants to dance,” Fasser said.

Fasser also wanted to have more representation from the underclassmen. All three of the sophomore representatives are taking the sixth period leadership class this year.

With the sophomore representatives “we have a better team and more underclassmen involvement,” Fasser said. “It’s really hard for one person to represent an entire underclassmen demographic.”

With the three sophomore representatives ASB has worked hard to reach out to both upper and underclassmen. “[Underclassmen] are the ones who are ultimately going to lead on the legacy of kindness and acceptance,” Fasser said.

Fasser has switched up the way that ASB works with teachers and staff this year too. “We’re working with staff more. We have had a weird relationship with the staff in the past.”

This year, however, ASB walks into every staff meeting with a prepared agenda. Instead of interrupting class to hand out ballots, they have worked out a way to use teachers’ inboxes to place ballots. ASB added their own box this year where they encourage teachers to send their feedback. To respect teachers’ class time ASB has made sure to limit class interruption.

Another change this year has been a shift in mood between the classes. During spirit weeks, the class rivalry always brings out the true competitiveness of high schoolers.

One thing that Fasser wanted to do this year was shift that competition from combative to friendly. “A fine display of how far we’ve come is the freshman hallway. I went in to help out and I saw three sophomores there already helping the freshmen and that warmed my heart, ”Fasser said.

“Lindsay is the definition of leadership. She has a lot of energy and knows exactly what to say. She is a very relatable person,” Junior class secretary-treasurer Elizabeth Osborn said.

Osborn had a lot of positive things to say about ASB. “A lot more work goes into our school than I thought it did. There are a lot of little things that need to be done,” Osborn said. “They always just seemed to happen and I never really thought about who did them. It turns out we have to.” ASB has really helped Osborn get more involved in school activities.

Outside of being ASB president, Fasser loves to watch movies and play sports. “I do play unified soccer and did swim team for three years. This is the first year I haven’t done it. I miss it. I went into Ballard not knowing anyone and swim team is where I made my first friends.”

In addition to sports, Fasser is also involved in school clubs. She is in her second year as the president of SLAM Club where she is working hard to spread awareness of suicide and depression.

She is currently applying for early admission to University of San Francisco. “I fell madly in love with [USF] and the city…I will never be a 49ers fan, don’t worry.”

With all of the activities that Fasser is involved in, one might think that her ASB aspirations are for personal gain. However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Fasser definitely sees her platform as an ability to help all students.

“It’s no longer just ASB preaching acceptance, other people are starting to adopt it too. That’s something that we’ve been striving for and I’m really excited about it. High school doesn’t have to be a bad place.”